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Microspine-rubber composite for high friction on smooth, rough, and wet surfaces | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636229/ | [
"Constance C. Berdan",
"Bryan G. Johnson",
"Elliot W. Hawkes",
"Constance C. Berdan",
"Bryan G. Johnson",
"Elliot W. Hawkes"
] | As robotic technologies advance and robots move out of factories and labs into the real world, grip on a variety of surfaces (e.g. smooth or rough) in a variety of conditions (e.g. dry or wet) becomes increasingly important. Bioinspired "microspines" have been previously explored, but primarily for vertical climbing applications or for small-scale robots applying low forces (less than 1 N). Furthe... |
Wing Fold and Twist Greatly Improves Flight Efficiency for Bat-Scale Flapping Wing Robots | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636735/ | [
"Xiaozhou Fan",
"Kenneth Breuer",
"Hamid Vejdani",
"Xiaozhou Fan",
"Kenneth Breuer",
"Hamid Vejdani"
] | Inspired by bat flight performance, we explore the advantages of wing twist and fold for flapping wing robots. For this purpose, we develop a dynamical model that incorporates these two degrees of freedom to the wing. The twist is assumed to be linearly-increasing along the wing, while the wing fold is modeled as a relative rotation of the handwing with respect to the armwing. An optimization sche... |
Development of a Bio-inspired Soft Robotic Gripper based on Tensegrity Structures | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635929/ | [
"Yixiang Liu",
"Qing Bi",
"Yibin Li",
"Yixiang Liu",
"Qing Bi",
"Yibin Li"
] | The bones, muscles, tendons and connective tissues form a continuous tension network throughout human body. This heterogeneous mixture presents the characteristics of tensegrity, providing the body with structurally integrity, stability and flexibility. Inspired by this, this paper proposes a novel soft robotic gripper based on tensegrity structures. Firstly, the design and working principle of th... |
A Real-Time Motion Detection and Object Tracking Framework for Future Robot-Rat Interaction | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636403/ | [
"Chen Chen",
"Guanglu Jia",
"Zihang Gao",
"Xiaowen Guo",
"Qiang Huang",
"Toshio Fukuda",
"Qing Shi",
"Chen Chen",
"Guanglu Jia",
"Zihang Gao",
"Xiaowen Guo",
"Qiang Huang",
"Toshio Fukuda",
"Qing Shi"
] | In this paper, we propose an automatic robot-rat interaction framework that enables a robotic rat to realize real-time localization, tracking and movement analysis of a laboratory rat. Specifically, we combine an object detector with stereo matching to achieve fast localization of the laboratory rat. Combined with the rat-like motion of the robot, one-step tracking of the rat is achieved, which en... |
Development of Rotating Workspace Ground Contact Force Observer for Legged Robot | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636840/ | [
"Woosong Kang",
"Chan Lee",
"Sehoon Oh",
"Woosong Kang",
"Chan Lee",
"Sehoon Oh"
] | Legged robots have opened their way to more stable and practical mobile robot applications. However, their locomotion strategies are limited to similar patterns, and dynamic running at high speed still is not successfully realized. One of the key technology required for the realization of the dynamic running of the legged robot is to estimate the ground contact force and control it in real-time. T... |
Design of a Large-scale Electrically-actuated Quadruped Robot and Locomotion Control for the Narrow Passage | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636262/ | [
"Shusheng Ye",
"Jianwen Luo",
"Caiming Sun",
"Bingchen Jin",
"Juntong Su",
"Aidong Zhang",
"Shusheng Ye",
"Jianwen Luo",
"Caiming Sun",
"Bingchen Jin",
"Juntong Su",
"Aidong Zhang"
] | With the gradual maturity of the software and hardware of quadruped robots, the application scenarios of quadruped robots are increasing, such as security, rescue, exploration and other tasks. Quadruped robots are flexible and adaptive to challenging or complex environment. This study presents a large-scale quadruped robot, Pegasus II, which is a new version upgraded from the previous quadruped ro... |
Force-feedback based Whole-body Stabilizer for Position-Controlled Humanoid Robots | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636634/ | [
"Shunpeng Yang",
"Hua Chen",
"Zhen Fu",
"Wei Zhang",
"Shunpeng Yang",
"Hua Chen",
"Zhen Fu",
"Wei Zhang"
] | This paper studies stabilizer design for position-controlled humanoid robots. Stabilizers are an essential part for position-controlled humanoids, whose primary objective is to adjust the control input sent to the robot to assist the tracking controller to better follow the planned reference trajectory. To achieve this goal, this paper develops a novel force-feedback based whole-body stabilizer th... |
Adaptive Force-based Control for Legged Robots | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636393/ | [
"Mohsen Sombolestan",
"Yiyu Chen",
"Quan Nguyen",
"Mohsen Sombolestan",
"Yiyu Chen",
"Quan Nguyen"
] | Adaptive control can address model uncertainty in control systems. However, it is preliminarily designed for tracking control. Recent advancements in the control of quadruped robots show that force control can effectively realize agile and robust locomotion. In this paper, we present a novel adaptive force-based control framework for legged robots. We introduce a new architecture in our proposed a... |
Quadruped Robot Hopping on Two Legs | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636120/ | [
"Shenggao Li",
"Hua Chen",
"Wei Zhang",
"Patrick M. Wensing",
"Shenggao Li",
"Hua Chen",
"Wei Zhang",
"Patrick M. Wensing"
] | This paper presents a control strategy for quadruped robots to hop on their rear legs in three-dimensional space. The proposed approach generates nominal center of mass (CoM) trajectories based on a template spring-loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP) model. Tracking this reference remains a challenge due to the underactauted nature of balance with point feet. To address this challenge, a control-Lyapu... |
Trotting and Pacing Locomotion of a Position-Controlled Quadruped Robot | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636006/ | [
"Guoteng Zhang",
"Yibin Li",
"Shugen Ma",
"Guoteng Zhang",
"Yibin Li",
"Shugen Ma"
] | Compared with torque-control techniques, a position-controlled quadruped robot is lower cost, easier to build, and more direct to drive. However, the stiff actuation of position-controlled actuators makes it difficult for the quadruped to achieve dynamically stable locomotion. This paper presents an implementation of joint velocity programming technique to regulate the body’s moving speed and orie... |
Precise Control of Magnetized Macrophage Cell Robot for Targeted Drug Delivery | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635945/ | [
"Luyao Wang",
"Yuguo Dai",
"Hongyan Sun",
"Li Song",
"Lina Jia",
"Chiju Jiang",
"Fumihito Arai",
"Lin Feng",
"Luyao Wang",
"Yuguo Dai",
"Hongyan Sun",
"Li Song",
"Lina Jia",
"Chiju Jiang",
"Fumihito Arai",
"Lin Feng"
] | Micro-nano-robots are considered to be a promising platform for drug delivery in biological organisms, but there are still urgent technical problems in biocompatibility and degradability of 3D-printed-based micro-robots that need to be solved. Therefore, in this paper, we design a magnetized bio-hybrid robot, which uses mouse macrophages as carriers, and allowed it to swallow Fe2O3 particles with ... |
Development of a Vision-Based Robotic Manipulation System for Transferring of Oocytes | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636732/ | [
"Shu Miao",
"Dayuan Chen",
"Qiang Nie",
"Xin Jiang",
"Xulin Sun",
"Jianjun Dai",
"Yun-Hui Liu",
"Xiang Li",
"Shu Miao",
"Dayuan Chen",
"Qiang Nie",
"Xin Jiang",
"Xulin Sun",
"Jianjun Dai",
"Yun-Hui Liu",
"Xiang Li"
] | Embryos/oocytes vitrification is an essential cryopreservation technique in IVF (in vitro fertilization) clinics. The reliable and effective transferring of embryos/oocytes is crucial to the subsequent steps in the whole procedure of vitrification. After each transferring, the straw needs to be replaced with a new one. Due to the uncertainties in the fabrication and installation, the exact knowled... |
Hybrid Magnetic Force and Torque Actuation of Miniature Helical Robots Using Mobile Coils to Accelerate Blood Clot Removal | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636851/ | [
"Lidong Yang",
"Moqiu Zhang",
"Haojin Yang",
"Zhengxin Yang",
"Li Zhang",
"Lidong Yang",
"Moqiu Zhang",
"Haojin Yang",
"Zhengxin Yang",
"Li Zhang"
] | Mechanical rubbing of blood clot using miniature magnetic helical robots is a potential way for thrombolysis. In this paper, we report a new strategy for this issue based on mobile coils. Previously, we proposed the concept of magnetic actuation with parallel mobile coils, in which multiple coils can move in 3D space. Enabled by mobility of the coils, additional degree-of-freedom (DOF) could be ut... |
Adaptive Tracking Controller for an Alginate Artificial Cell | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636639/ | [
"Gokhan Kararsiz",
"Louis William Rogowski",
"Xiao Zhang",
"Anuruddha Bhattacharjee",
"Min Jun Kim",
"Gokhan Kararsiz",
"Louis William Rogowski",
"Xiao Zhang",
"Anuruddha Bhattacharjee",
"Min Jun Kim"
] | This paper presents an adaptive backstepping controller for the reference tracking of an alginate artificial cell. An adaptive controller was implemented to precisely manipulate a magnetic artificial cell actuated by rotating magnetic fields. The rolling motion of a small-scale robot in a fluidic environment is challenging, especially when the fluid imparts an unknown response at low Reynolds numb... |
Autonomous object harvesting using synchronized optoelectronic microrobots | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636475/ | [
"Christopher Bendkowski",
"Laurent Mennillo",
"Tao Xu",
"Mohamed Elsayed",
"Filip Stojic",
"Harrison Edwards",
"Shuailong Zhang",
"Cindi Morshead",
"Vijay Pawar",
"Aaron R. Wheeler",
"Danail Stoyanov",
"Michael Shaw",
"Christopher Bendkowski",
"Laurent Mennillo",
"Tao Xu",
"Mohamed Elsayed",
"Filip Stojic",
"Harrison Edwards",
"Shuailong Zhang",
"Cindi Morshead",
"Vijay Pawar",
"Aaron R. Wheeler",
"Danail Stoyanov",
"Michael Shaw"
] | Optoelectronic tweezer-driven microrobots (OETdMs) are a versatile micromanipulation technology based on the application of light induced dielectrophoresis to move small dielectric structures (microrobots) across a photoconductive substrate. The microrobots in turn can be used to exert forces on secondary objects and carry out a wide range of micromanipulation operations, including collecting, tra... |
Keeping It Simple: Bio-Inspired Threshold-Based Strain Sensing for Micro-Aerial Vehicles | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636277/ | [
"Regan Kubicek",
"Mahnoush Babaei",
"Sarah Bergbreiter",
"Regan Kubicek",
"Mahnoush Babaei",
"Sarah Bergbreiter"
] | Moths use hundreds of strain sensors (campaniform sensilla) on each wing to quickly respond to perturbations that may otherwise destabilize the moth during flight. A similar sensing approach could help stabilize micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs), but large sensor arrays are challenging due to the wiring and large latency that exists when capturing data from many traditional strain sensors. This work in... |
Learning to Fly—a Gym Environment with PyBullet Physics for Reinforcement Learning of Multi-agent Quadcopter Control | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635857/ | [
"Jacopo Panerati",
"Hehui Zheng",
"SiQi Zhou",
"James Xu",
"Amanda Prorok",
"Angela P. Schoellig",
"Jacopo Panerati",
"Hehui Zheng",
"SiQi Zhou",
"James Xu",
"Amanda Prorok",
"Angela P. Schoellig"
] | Robotic simulators are crucial for academic research and education as well as the development of safety-critical applications. Reinforcement learning environments— simple simulations coupled with a problem specification in the form of a reward function—are also important to standardize the development (and benchmarking) of learning algorithms. Yet, full-scale simulators typically lack portability ... |
iGibson 1.0: A Simulation Environment for Interactive Tasks in Large Realistic Scenes | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636667/ | [
"Bokui Shen",
"Fei Xia",
"Chengshu Li",
"Roberto Martín-Martín",
"Linxi Fan",
"Guanzhi Wang",
"Claudia Pérez-D’Arpino",
"Shyamal Buch",
"Sanjana Srivastava",
"Lyne Tchapmi",
"Micael Tchapmi",
"Kent Vainio",
"Josiah Wong",
"Li Fei-Fei",
"Silvio Savarese",
"Bokui Shen",
"Fei Xia",
"Chengshu Li",
"Roberto Martín-Martín",
"Linxi Fan",
"Guanzhi Wang",
"Claudia Pérez-D’Arpino",
"Shyamal Buch",
"Sanjana Srivastava",
"Lyne Tchapmi",
"Micael Tchapmi",
"Kent Vainio",
"Josiah Wong",
"Li Fei-Fei",
"Silvio Savarese"
] | We present iGibson 1.0, a novel simulation environment to develop robotic solutions for interactive tasks in large-scale realistic scenes. Our environment contains 15 fully interactive home-sized scenes with 108 rooms populated with rigid and articulated objects. The scenes are replicas of real-world homes, with distribution and the layout of objects aligned to those of the real world. iGibson 1.0... |
An Approach to Deploy Interactive Robotic Simulators on the Web for HRI Experiments: Results in Social Robot Navigation | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636319/ | [
"Nathan Tsoi",
"Mohamed Hussein",
"Olivia Fugikawa",
"J. D. Zhao",
"Marynel Vázquez",
"Nathan Tsoi",
"Mohamed Hussein",
"Olivia Fugikawa",
"J. D. Zhao",
"Marynel Vázquez"
] | Evaluation of social robot navigation inherently requires human input due to its qualitative nature. Motivated by the need to scale human evaluation, we propose a general method for deploying interactive, rich-client robotic simulations on the web. Prior approaches implement specific web- compatible simulators or provide tools to build a simulator for a specific study. Instead, our approach builds... |
Co-design of Embodied Intelligence: A Structured Approach | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636513/ | [
"Gioele Zardini",
"Dejan Milojevic",
"Andrea Censi",
"Emilio Frazzoli",
"Gioele Zardini",
"Dejan Milojevic",
"Andrea Censi",
"Emilio Frazzoli"
] | We consider the problem of co-designing embodied intelligence as a whole in a structured way, from hardware components such as propulsion systems and sensors to software modules such as control and perception pipelines. We propose a principled approach to formulate and solve complex embodied intelligence co-design problems, leveraging a monotone co-design theory. The methods we propose are intuiti... |
Muscle-reflex model of human locomotion entrains to mechanical perturbations | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636780/ | [
"Banu Abdikadirova",
"Jongwoo Lee",
"Neville Hogan",
"Meghan E. Huber",
"Banu Abdikadirova",
"Jongwoo Lee",
"Neville Hogan",
"Meghan E. Huber"
] | Prior experiments have shown that human gait synchronizes to periodic torque pulses applied about the hip and ankle joints by robotic exoskeletons. Importantly, entrainment occurred even when the pulse period differed slightly from the user’s preferred stride period, making it a viable approach to increase gait speed. As gait speed is an important outcome of gait therapy, gait entrainment to mecha... |
daß: Distributable And Scalable Simulation of Robotic Applications | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636152/ | [
"Hans C. Woithe",
"Itai Segall",
"Hans C. Woithe",
"Itai Segall"
] | Simulation is an essential tool for developing robotic systems; however it is computationally intensive and does not scale well, especially for multi-robot scenarios. In this paper we introduce daß – a system that facilitates distributable and scalable simulations of robotic applications. It overcomes many of the performance and quality limitations involved in common multi-robot simulation scenari... |
Mobile 3D Printing Robot Simulation with Viscoelastic Fluids | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636114/ | [
"Uljad Berdica",
"Yuewei Fu",
"Yuchen Liu",
"Emmanouil Angelidis",
"Chen Feng",
"Uljad Berdica",
"Yuewei Fu",
"Yuchen Liu",
"Emmanouil Angelidis",
"Chen Feng"
] | The system design and algorithm development of mobile 3D printing robots need a realistic simulation. They require a mobile robot simulation platform to interoperate with a physics-based material simulation for handling interactions between the time-variant deformable 3D printing materials and other simulated rigid bodies in the environment, which is not available for roboticists yet. To bridge th... |
Textile Taxonomy and Classification Using Pulling and Twisting | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635992/ | [
"Alberta Longhini",
"Michael C. Welle",
"Ioanna Mitsioni",
"Danica Kragic",
"Alberta Longhini",
"Michael C. Welle",
"Ioanna Mitsioni",
"Danica Kragic"
] | Identification of textile properties is an important milestone toward advanced robotic manipulation tasks that consider interaction with clothing items such as assisted dressing, laundry folding, automated sewing, textile recycling and reusing. Despite the abundance of work considering this class of deformable objects, many open problems remain. These relate to the choice and modelling of the sens... |
Learning of Parameters in Behavior Trees for Movement Skills | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636292/ | [
"Matthias Mayr",
"Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis",
"Faseeh Ahmad",
"Luigi Nardi",
"Volker Krueger",
"Matthias Mayr",
"Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis",
"Faseeh Ahmad",
"Luigi Nardi",
"Volker Krueger"
] | Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a powerful mathematical framework that allows robots to learn complex skills by trial-and-error. Despite numerous successes in many applications, RL algorithms still require thousands of trials to converge to high-performing policies, can produce dangerous behaviors while learning, and the optimized policies (usually modeled as neural networks) give almost zero expla... |
On Step-and-Scan Trajectories used in Wafer Scanners in Semiconductor Manufacturing | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636016/ | [
"Yazan M. Al-Rawashdeh",
"Mohammad Al Janaideh",
"Marcel Heertjes",
"Yazan M. Al-Rawashdeh",
"Mohammad Al Janaideh",
"Marcel Heertjes"
] | Adopting the ideal reliable machine model, the throughput of a lithography machine can be given as the reciprocal of the operation time. This time can be defined at the die level where the actual exposure process takes place as the time unit per die. A closer look at the motion profiles, namely step-and-scan trajectories, suggests that a multi-disciplinary design optimization should be involved wh... |
Energy-Efficient Mobile Robot Control via Run-time Monitoring of Environmental Complexity and Computing Workload | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635877/ | [
"Sherif A.S. Mohamed",
"Mohammad-Hashem Haghbayan",
"Antonio Miele",
"Onur Mutlu",
"Juha Plosila",
"Sherif A.S. Mohamed",
"Mohammad-Hashem Haghbayan",
"Antonio Miele",
"Onur Mutlu",
"Juha Plosila"
] | We propose an energy-efficient controller to minimize the energy consumption of a mobile robot by dynamically manipulating the mechanical and computational actuators of the robot. The mobile robot performs real-time vision-based applications based on an event-based camera. The actuators of the controller are CPU voltage/frequency for the computation part and motor voltage for the mechanical part. ... |
Adaptive Optimization of Autonomous Vehicle Computational Resources for Performance and Energy Improvement | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635828/ | [
"Saurabh Jambotkar",
"Longxiang Guo",
"Yunyi Jia",
"Saurabh Jambotkar",
"Longxiang Guo",
"Yunyi Jia"
] | Autonomous vehicles usually consume a large amount of computational power for their operations, especially for the tasks of sensing and perception with artificial intelligence algorithms. Such a computation may not only cost a significant amount of energy but also cause performance issues when the onboard computational resources are limited. To address this issue, this paper proposes an adaptive o... |
Design of a New Robot End-Effector Based on Compliant Constant-Force Mechanism | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636597/ | [
"Yuzhang Wei",
"Qingsong Xu",
"Yuzhang Wei",
"Qingsong Xu"
] | This paper proposes the design of a new robot end-effector based on compliant constant-force mechanism for robot-assisted manufacturing, such as polishing. One uniqueness of the proposed end-effector lies in that it offers a constant contact force without using a force sensor and controller. An industrial robot is adopted to position the end-effector and the end-effector regulates the contact forc... |
A New Method for Generating Work Piece Surface Representations for Robotic Machining | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636774/ | [
"Nikolaj W. Leth",
"Henrik G. Petersen",
"Nikolaj W. Leth",
"Henrik G. Petersen"
] | Execution of automatically generated programs for accurate robotic machining requires the generated trajectories to be not only accurate with respect to the work piece, but also that the trajectories are continuous differentiable (C1) while avoiding unnecessary large curvatures leading to large accelerations that could compromise machining quality or speed. A widely used work piece representation ... |
Robust Multi-camera SLAM with Manhattan Constraint toward Automated Valet Parking | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636304/ | [
"Yifei Kang",
"Yu Song",
"Wuwei Ge",
"Tong Ling",
"Yifei Kang",
"Yu Song",
"Wuwei Ge",
"Tong Ling"
] | We propose a multi-camera simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system using the Manhattan constraint to support automated valet parking. The proposed method uses multiple cameras to expand the system field of view, to improve the robustness of the SLAM system in textureless regions, where point features from different cameras are jointly optimized by a uniform cost function. To improve glo... |
DSVP: Dual-Stage Viewpoint Planner for Rapid Exploration by Dynamic Expansion | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636473/ | [
"Hongbiao Zhu",
"Chao Cao",
"Yukun Xia",
"Sebastian Scherer",
"Ji Zhang",
"Weidong Wang",
"Hongbiao Zhu",
"Chao Cao",
"Yukun Xia",
"Sebastian Scherer",
"Ji Zhang",
"Weidong Wang"
] | We present a method for efficiently exploring highly convoluted environments. The method incorporates two planning stages - an exploration stage for extending the boundary of the map, and a relocation stage for explicitly transiting the robot to different sub-areas in the environment. The exploration stage develops a local Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) in the free space of the environment, a... |
PoseFusion2: Simultaneous Background Reconstruction and Human Shape Recovery in Real-time | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636658/ | [
"Huayan Zhang",
"Tianwei Zhang",
"Tin Lun Lam",
"Sethu Vijayakumar",
"Huayan Zhang",
"Tianwei Zhang",
"Tin Lun Lam",
"Sethu Vijayakumar"
] | Dynamic environments that include unstructured moving objects pose a hard problem for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) performance. The motion of rigid objects can be typically tracked by exploiting their texture and geometric features. However, humans moving in the scene are often one of the most important, interactive targets – they are very hard to track and reconstruct robustly due... |
A Multi-Hypothesis Approach to Pose Ambiguity in Object-Based SLAM | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635956/ | [
"Jiahui Fu",
"Qiangqiang Huang",
"Kevin Doherty",
"Yue Wang",
"John J. Leonard",
"Jiahui Fu",
"Qiangqiang Huang",
"Kevin Doherty",
"Yue Wang",
"John J. Leonard"
] | In object-based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), 6D object poses offer a compact representation of landmark geometry useful for downstream planning and manipulation tasks. However, measurement ambiguity then arises as objects may possess complete or partial object shape symmetries (e.g., due to occlusion), making it difficult or impossible to generate a single consistent object pose e... |
Underwater Visual Acoustic SLAM with Extrinsic Calibration | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636258/ | [
"Shida Xu",
"Tomasz Luczynski",
"Jonatan Scharff Willners",
"Ziyang Hong",
"Kaicheng Zhang",
"Yvan R. Petillot",
"Sen Wang",
"Shida Xu",
"Tomasz Luczynski",
"Jonatan Scharff Willners",
"Ziyang Hong",
"Kaicheng Zhang",
"Yvan R. Petillot",
"Sen Wang"
] | Underwater scenarios are challenging for visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) due to limited visibility and intermittently losing structures in image views. In this paper, we propose a visual acoustic bundle adjustment system which fuses a camera and a Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) in a graph SLAM framework for reliable underwater localization and mapping. In order to fuse the vision w... |
Some Research Questions for SLAM in Deformable Environments | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635883/ | [
"Shoudong Huang",
"Yongbo Chen",
"Liang Zhao",
"Yanhao Zhang",
"Mengya Xu",
"Shoudong Huang",
"Yongbo Chen",
"Liang Zhao",
"Yanhao Zhang",
"Mengya Xu"
] | SLAM in deformable environments is a very challenging research topic. Some research works have been presented by different research groups in the past few years. However, there are still some challenging research questions remaining unanswered. This paper discusses some of these research questions focusing on the case when point features are used to describe the deformable environments. The SLAM p... |
Adaptive Hyperparameter Tuning for Black-box LiDAR Odometry | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636038/ | [
"Kenji Koide",
"Masashi Yokozuka",
"Shuji Oishi",
"Atsuhiko Banno",
"Kenji Koide",
"Masashi Yokozuka",
"Shuji Oishi",
"Atsuhiko Banno"
] | This study proposes an adaptive data-driven hy-perparameter tuning framework for black-box 3D LiDAR odometry algorithms. The proposed framework comprises offline parameter-error function modeling and online adaptive parameter selection. In the offline step, we run the odometry estimation algorithm for tuning with different parameters and environments and evaluate the accuracy of the estimated traj... |
Learning Forceful Manipulation Skills from Multi-modal Human Demonstrations | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636828/ | [
"An T. Le",
"Meng Guo",
"Niels van Duijkeren",
"Leonel Rozo",
"Robert Krug",
"Andras G. Kupcsik",
"Mathias Bürger",
"An T. Le",
"Meng Guo",
"Niels van Duijkeren",
"Leonel Rozo",
"Robert Krug",
"Andras G. Kupcsik",
"Mathias Bürger"
] | Learning from Demonstration (LfD) provides an intuitive and fast approach to program robotic manipulators. Task parameterized representations allow easy adaptation to new scenes and online observations. However, this approach has been limited to pose-only demonstrations and thus only skills with spatial and temporal features. In this work, we extend the LfD framework to address forceful manipulati... |
ILoSA: Interactive Learning of Stiffness and Attractors | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636710/ | [
"Giovanni Franzese",
"Anna Mészáros",
"Luka Peternel",
"Jens Kober",
"Giovanni Franzese",
"Anna Mészáros",
"Luka Peternel",
"Jens Kober"
] | Teaching robots how to apply forces according to our preferences is still an open challenge that has to be tackled from multiple engineering perspectives. This paper studies how to learn variable impedance policies where both the Cartesian stiffness and the attractor can be learned from human demonstrations and corrections with a user-friendly interface. The presented framework, named ILoSA, uses ... |
A Marginal Log-Likelihood Approach for the Estimation of Discount Factors of Multiple Experts in Inverse Reinforcement Learning | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636479/ | [
"Babatunde H. Giwa",
"Chi-Guhn Lee",
"Babatunde H. Giwa",
"Chi-Guhn Lee"
] | We focus on multiple experts performing a task in a Markov decision process (MDP) environment. A probabilistic assignment of trajectories to clusters and a mathematical framework which leverages the utility function are employed to jointly estimate the discount factor and reward. We treat the number of clusters as a hyperparameter which can be "freely" selected by the problem designer. In this wor... |
Towards Coordinated Robot Motions: End-to-End Learning of Motion Policies on Transform Trees | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636097/ | [
"M. Asif Rana",
"Anqi Li",
"Dieter Fox",
"Sonia Chernova",
"Byron Boots",
"Nathan Ratliff",
"M. Asif Rana",
"Anqi Li",
"Dieter Fox",
"Sonia Chernova",
"Byron Boots",
"Nathan Ratliff"
] | Generating robot motion that fulfills multiple tasks simultaneously is challenging due to the geometric constraints imposed on the robot. In this paper, we propose to solve multi-task problems through learning structured policies from human demonstrations. Our structured policy is inspired by RMPflow, a framework for combining subtask policies on different spaces. The policy structure provides the... |
Learning to Optimize Control Policies and Evaluate Reproduction Performance from Human Demonstrations | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636454/ | [
"Paul Gesel",
"Dain LaRoche",
"Sajay Arthanat",
"Momotaz Begum",
"Paul Gesel",
"Dain LaRoche",
"Sajay Arthanat",
"Momotaz Begum"
] | We are interested in learning from demonstration (LfD) that can both learn and execute a trajectory and evaluate the quality of a previously unseen trajectory in the domain of assistive robotics. To this end, we propose a novel continuous inverse optimal control (IOC) formulation that simultaneously learns an optimal time-invariant controller and an evaluation metric from human demonstrations. We ... |
Learning from Successful and Failed Demonstrations via Optimization | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636679/ | [
"Brendan Hertel",
"S. Reza Ahmadzadeh",
"Brendan Hertel",
"S. Reza Ahmadzadeh"
] | Learning from Demonstration (LfD) is a popular approach that allows humans to teach robots new skills by showing the correct way(s) of performing the desired skill. Human-provided demonstrations, however, are not always optimal and the teacher usually addresses this issue by discarding or replacing sub-optimal (noisy or faulty) demonstrations. We propose a novel LfD representation that learns from... |
A Novel Curved Gaussian Mixture Model and Its Application in Motion Skill Encoding | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636121/ | [
"Disi Chen",
"Gongfa Li",
"Dalin Zhou",
"Zhaojie Ju",
"Disi Chen",
"Gongfa Li",
"Dalin Zhou",
"Zhaojie Ju"
] | The purpose of this paper is to present a novel curved Gaussian Mixture Model (CGMM) and to study the application of it in motion skill encoding. Primarily, Gaussian mixture model (GMM) has been widely applied on many occasions when a probability density function is needed to approximate a complex probability distribution. However, GMM cannot efficiently approach highly non-linear distributions. T... |
Learning by Watching: Physical Imitation of Manipulation Skills from Human Videos | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636080/ | [
"Haoyu Xiong",
"Quanzhou Li",
"Yun-Chun Chen",
"Homanga Bharadhwaj",
"Samarth Sinha",
"Animesh Garg",
"Haoyu Xiong",
"Quanzhou Li",
"Yun-Chun Chen",
"Homanga Bharadhwaj",
"Samarth Sinha",
"Animesh Garg"
] | Learning from visual data opens the potential to accrue a large range of manipulation behaviors by leveraging human demonstrations without specifying each of them mathe-matically, but rather through natural task specification. In this paper, we present Learning by Watching (LbW), an algorithmic framework for policy learning through imitation from a single video specifying the task. The key insight... |
Contrastively Learning Visual Attention as Affordance Cues from Demonstrations for Robotic Grasping | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636760/ | [
"Yantian Zha",
"Siddhant Bhambri",
"Lin Guan",
"Yantian Zha",
"Siddhant Bhambri",
"Lin Guan"
] | Conventional works that learn grasping affordance from demonstrations need to explicitly predict grasping configurations, such as gripper approaching angles or grasping preshapes. Classic motion planners could then sample trajectories by using such predicted configurations. In this work, our goal is instead to fill the gap between affordance discovery and affordance-based policy learning by integr... |
Seeing All the Angles: Learning Multiview Manipulation Policies for Contact-Rich Tasks from Demonstrations | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636440/ | [
"Trevor Ablett",
"Yifan Zhai",
"Jonathan Kelly",
"Trevor Ablett",
"Yifan Zhai",
"Jonathan Kelly"
] | Learned visuomotor policies have shown considerable success as an alternative to traditional, hand-crafted frameworks for robotic manipulation. Surprisingly, an extension of these methods to the multiview domain is relatively unexplored. A successful multiview policy could be deployed on a mobile manipulation platform, allowing the robot to complete a task regardless of its view of the scene. In t... |
Adaptive t-Momentum-based Optimization for Unknown Ratio of Outliers in Amateur Data in Imitation Learning | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636413/ | [
"Wendyam Eric Lionel Ilboudo",
"Taisuke Kobayashi",
"Kenji Sugimoto",
"Wendyam Eric Lionel Ilboudo",
"Taisuke Kobayashi",
"Kenji Sugimoto"
] | Behavioral cloning (BC) bears a high potential for safe and direct transfer of human skills to robots. However, demonstrations performed by human operators often contain noise or imperfect behaviors that can affect the efficiency of the imitator if left unchecked. In order to allow the imitators to effectively learn from imperfect demonstrations, we propose to employ the robust t-momentum optimiza... |
Robust Behavior Cloning with Adversarial Demonstration Detection | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636203/ | [
"Mostafa Hussein",
"Brendan Crowe",
"Madison Clark-Turner",
"Paul Gesel",
"Marek Petrik",
"Momotaz Begum",
"Mostafa Hussein",
"Brendan Crowe",
"Madison Clark-Turner",
"Paul Gesel",
"Marek Petrik",
"Momotaz Begum"
] | Imitation learning (IL) frameworks in robotics typically assume that a domain expert's demonstration always contains a correct way of doing the task. Despite its theoretical convenience, this assumption has limited practical values for an IL-powered robot in real world. There are many reasons for an expert in the real world to provide demonstrations that may contain incorrect or potentially unsafe... |
State-Only Imitation Learning for Dexterous Manipulation | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636557/ | [
"Ilija Radosavovic",
"Xiaolong Wang",
"Lerrel Pinto",
"Jitendra Malik",
"Ilija Radosavovic",
"Xiaolong Wang",
"Lerrel Pinto",
"Jitendra Malik"
] | Modern model-free reinforcement learning methods have recently demonstrated impressive results on a number of problems. However, complex domains like dexterous manipulation remain a challenge due to the high sample complexity. To address this, current approaches employ expert demonstrations in the form of state-action pairs, which are difficult to obtain for real-world settings such as learning fr... |
Self-critical Learning of Influencing Factors for Trajectory Prediction using Gated Graph Convolutional Network | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636641/ | [
"Niraj Bhujel",
"Yau Wei Yun",
"Han Wang",
"Vijay Prakash Dwivedi",
"Niraj Bhujel",
"Yau Wei Yun",
"Han Wang",
"Vijay Prakash Dwivedi"
] | Forecasting future trajectories of multiple pedestrians in a crowded environment is a challenging problem due to the complex interactions among the pedestrians. The interactions can be asymmetric and their influences may vary over time. Moreover, each pedestrian can exhibit different behavior at any given time and context and thus they may have multiple future possible trajectories. In this work, ... |
Trajectory Generation in New Environments from Past Experiences | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636231/ | [
"Weiming Zhi",
"Tin Lai",
"Lionel Ott",
"Fabio Ramos",
"Weiming Zhi",
"Tin Lai",
"Lionel Ott",
"Fabio Ramos"
] | Being able to safely operate for extended periods of time in dynamic environments is a critical capability for autonomous systems. This generally involves the prediction and understanding of motion patterns of dynamic entities, such as vehicles and people, in the surroundings. Many motion prediction methods in the literature implicitly account for environmental factors by learning on observed moti... |
DistillPose: Lightweight Camera Localization Using Auxiliary Learning | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635870/ | [
"Yehya Abouelnaga",
"Mai Bui",
"Slobodan Ilic",
"Yehya Abouelnaga",
"Mai Bui",
"Slobodan Ilic"
] | We propose a lightweight retrieval-based pipeline to predict 6DOF camera poses from RGB images. Our pipeline uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) to encode a query image as a feature vector. A nearest neighbor lookup finds the pose-wise nearest database image. A siamese convolutional neural network regresses the relative pose from the nearest neighboring database image to the query image. The... |
Capacitated Vehicle Routing with Target Geometric Constraints | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636123/ | [
"Kai Gao",
"Jingjin Yu",
"Kai Gao",
"Jingjin Yu"
] | We investigate the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) under a robotics context, where a vehicle with limited payload must complete delivery (or pickup) tasks to serve a set of geographically distributed customers with varying demands. In classical CVRP, a customer location is modeled as a point. In many robotics applications, however, it is more appropriate to model such "customer location... |
Sparsification for Fast Optimal Multi-Robot Path Planning in Lazy Compilation Schemes | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636296/ | [
"Pavel Surynek",
"Pavel Surynek"
] | Path planning for multiple robots (MRPP) represents a task of finding non-colliding paths for robots via which they can navigate from their initial positions to specified goal positions. The problem is often modeled using undirected graphs where robots move between vertices across edges while no two robots can simultaneously occupy the same vertex nor can traverse an edge in opposite directions. C... |
Search-based Planning with Learned Behaviors for Navigation among Pedestrians | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636405/ | [
"Ishani Chatterjee",
"Yash Oza",
"Maxim Likhachev",
"Manuela Veloso",
"Ishani Chatterjee",
"Yash Oza",
"Maxim Likhachev",
"Manuela Veloso"
] | Agent control among pedestrians is often approached in one of the three following ways: using predefined behaviors for agent navigation, learning navigation behaviors from data, or search-based planning on a graph where each edge is a feasible action chosen from a set of predefined actions. While the first approach often produces natural looking motions and the second learns and utilizes complex i... |
A Fast Algorithm for Stochastic Orienteering with Chance Constraints | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636669/ | [
"Thomas C. Thayer",
"Stefano Carpin",
"Thomas C. Thayer",
"Stefano Carpin"
] | We consider the Stochastic Orienteering Problem with random traversal time for edges. In this scenario the length of the path is a random variable and we consider a formulation with chance constraints, i.e., a bound on the probability that the length of the path exceeds the allotted budget. Our proposed solution casts the problem as an instance of a suitably defined Constrained Markov Decision Pro... |
Kohonen Self-Organizing Map based Route Planning: A Revisit | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636025/ | [
"Qingshu Guan",
"Xiaopeng Hong",
"Wei Ke",
"Liangfei Zhang",
"Guanghui Sun",
"Yihong Gong",
"Qingshu Guan",
"Xiaopeng Hong",
"Wei Ke",
"Liangfei Zhang",
"Guanghui Sun",
"Yihong Gong"
] | In this paper, we revisit the long-standing Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and focus on the challenging, yet practical route planning problem with limited computational resources. We make contributions to TSP, one of the most famous NP-hard problems by providing a new improved approximate solution, which we term TOpology Preserving Self-Organizing Map (TOPSOM). TOPSOM well preserves the topology... |
FloMo: Tractable Motion Prediction with Normalizing Flows | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636445/ | [
"Christoph Schöller",
"Alois Knoll",
"Christoph Schöller",
"Alois Knoll"
] | The future motion of traffic participants is inherently uncertain. To plan safely, therefore, an autonomous agent must take into account multiple possible trajectory outcomes and prioritize them. Recently, this problem has been addressed with generative neural networks. However, most generative models either do not learn the true underlying trajectory distribution reliably, or do not allow predict... |
A Novel 2-SUR 6-DOF Parallel Manipulator Actuated by Spherical Motion Generators | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636689/ | [
"Kun Wang",
"Xiaoyong Wu",
"Yujin Wang",
"Bo Li",
"Bo Yuan",
"Shaoping Bai",
"Kun Wang",
"Xiaoyong Wu",
"Yujin Wang",
"Bo Li",
"Bo Yuan",
"Shaoping Bai"
] | A novel 6-DOF parallel manipulator with two spherical-universal-revolute limbs is proposed in this work. Compared with general 6-DOF parallel manipulators of six kinematic limbs, this new manipulator actuated by spherical motion generators has only two limbs, which brings kinematic advantages such as small footprint and large workspace. The inverse position problem of the manipulator is solved by ... |
A Novel Model-Based Robust Super-Twisting Sliding Mode Control of PKMs: Design and Real-Time Experiments | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636168/ | [
"Hussein Saied",
"Ahmed Chemori",
"Maher El Rafei",
"Clovis Francis",
"Hussein Saied",
"Ahmed Chemori",
"Maher El Rafei",
"Clovis Francis"
] | In this paper, a new robust model-based super-twisting algorithm is proposed as a control solution for parallel kinematic manipulators (PKMs). The conventional super-twisting algorithm for robot manipulators has the structure of a computed-torque control which can be sensitive to measurement noise. This issue may deteriorate the dynamic performance of the manipulator and reduce its robustness towa... |
Moving-Platform Pose Estimation for Cable-Driven Parallel Robots | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636284/ | [
"Zane Zake",
"François Chaumette",
"Nicolò Pedemonte",
"Stéphane Caro",
"Zane Zake",
"François Chaumette",
"Nicolò Pedemonte",
"Stéphane Caro"
] | Cable-Driven Parallel Robots (CDPRs) are parallel robots with rigid links replaced by cables. As for most parallel robots the determination of the analytical solutions to the direct geometrico-static model (DGSM) is a difficult task that is often not feasible online. However, the knowledge of the moving-platform (MP) pose is necessary in order to control the CDPR, e.g. with visual servoing. When t... |
Improving Object Permanence using Agent Actions and Reasoning | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636502/ | [
"Ying Siu Liang",
"Chen Zhang",
"Dongkyu Choi",
"Kenneth Kwok",
"Ying Siu Liang",
"Chen Zhang",
"Dongkyu Choi",
"Kenneth Kwok"
] | Object permanence in psychology means knowing that objects still exist even if they are no longer visible. It is a crucial concept for robots to operate autonomously in uncontrolled environments. Existing approaches learn object permanence from low-level perception, but perform poorly on more complex scenarios, like when objects are contained and carried by others. Knowledge about manipulation act... |
Multi-Variable State Prediction: HMM Based Approach for Real-Time Trajectory Prediction | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636556/ | [
"Ankit",
"Karthik Narayanan",
"Dibyendu Ghosh",
"Vinayak Honkote",
"Ganeshram Nandakumar",
"Ankit",
"Karthik Narayanan",
"Dibyendu Ghosh",
"Vinayak Honkote",
"Ganeshram Nandakumar"
] | Predicting the motion of observed entities benefits humans almost seamlessly. The same benefits can be proliferated to mobile autonomous systems if we have a reliable, real-time solution to predict the motion of any object of interest, be it the host’s own motion or that of an observed foreign object. In this work, a novel Multi-Variable State Prediction (MVSP) methodology is devised for real-time... |
Towards Robust Human Trajectory Prediction in Raw Videos | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636831/ | [
"Rui Yu",
"Zihan Zhou",
"Rui Yu",
"Zihan Zhou"
] | Human trajectory prediction has received increased attention lately due to its importance in applications such as autonomous vehicles and indoor robots. However, most existing methods make predictions based on human-labeled trajectories and ignore the errors and noises in detection and tracking. In this paper, we study the problem of human trajectory forecasting in raw videos, and show that the pr... |
BundleTrack: 6D Pose Tracking for Novel Objects without Instance or Category-Level 3D Models | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635991/ | [
"Bowen Wen",
"Kostas Bekris",
"Bowen Wen",
"Kostas Bekris"
] | Tracking the 6D pose of objects in video sequences is important for robot manipulation. Most prior efforts, however, often assume that the target object's CAD model, at least at a category-level, is available for offline training or during online template matching. This work proposes BundleTrack, a general framework for 6D pose tracking of novel objects, which does not depend upon 3D models, eithe... |
Model-free Vehicle Tracking and State Estimation in Point Cloud Sequences | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636202/ | [
"Ziqi Pang",
"Zhichao Li",
"Naiyan Wang",
"Ziqi Pang",
"Zhichao Li",
"Naiyan Wang"
] | Estimating the states of surrounding traffic participants stays at the core of autonomous driving. In this paper, we study a novel setting of this problem: model-free single-object tracking (SOT), which takes the object state in the first frame as input, and jointly solves state estimation and tracking in subsequent frames. The main purpose for this new setting is to break the strong limitation of... |
Score refinement for confidence-based 3D multi-object tracking | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636032/ | [
"Nuri Benbarka",
"Jona Schröder",
"Andreas Zell",
"Nuri Benbarka",
"Jona Schröder",
"Andreas Zell"
] | Multi-object tracking is a critical component in autonomous navigation, as it provides valuable information for decision-making. Many researchers tackled the 3D multi-object tracking task by filtering out the frame-by-frame 3D detections; however, their focus was mainly on finding useful features or proper matching metrics. Our work focuses on a neglected part of the tracking system: score refinem... |
A High-Accuracy Fiducial Marker with Parallel Lenticular Angle Gauges | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635988/ | [
"Hideyuki Tanaka",
"Kunihiro Ogata",
"Hideyuki Tanaka",
"Kunihiro Ogata"
] | Lenticular angle gauge (LEAG) is a planar pattern that visualizes relative attitude by the position of the black line, which moves according to the viewing angle. The authors developed a new LEAG in which the direction of movement of the black line is 90◦ different from the previous LEAG, and used it to develop a non-square high-accuracy fiducial marker. The new marker realized accurate pose estim... |
V-RVO: Decentralized Multi-Agent Collision Avoidance using Voronoi Diagrams and Reciprocal Velocity Obstacles | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636618/ | [
"Senthil Hariharan Arul",
"Dinesh Manocha",
"Senthil Hariharan Arul",
"Dinesh Manocha"
] | We present a decentralized collision avoidance method for dense environments based on buffered Voronoi cells (BVC) and reciprocal velocity obstacles (RVO). Our approach is designed for scenarios with a large number of agents in close proximity and provides passive-friendly collision avoidance guarantees. The Voronoi cells are superimposed with RVO cones to compute a suitable direction for each age... |
Human-Inspired Multi-Agent Navigation using Knowledge Distillation | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636463/ | [
"Pei Xu",
"Ioannis Karamouzas",
"Pei Xu",
"Ioannis Karamouzas"
] | Despite significant advancements in the field of multi-agent navigation, agents still lack the sophistication and intelligence that humans exhibit in multi-agent settings. In this paper, we propose a framework for learning a human-like general collision avoidance policy for agent-agent interactions in fully decentralized, multi-agent environments. Our approach uses knowledge distillation with rein... |
Trajectory Splitting: A Distributed Formulation for Collision Avoiding Trajectory Optimization | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636846/ | [
"Changhao Wang",
"Jeffrey Bingham",
"Masayoshi Tomizuka",
"Changhao Wang",
"Jeffrey Bingham",
"Masayoshi Tomizuka"
] | Efficient trajectory optimization is essential for avoiding collisions in unstructured environments, but it remains challenging to have both speed and quality in the solutions. One reason is that second-order optimality requires calculating Hessian matrices that can grow with O(N2) with the number of waypoints. Decreasing the waypoints can quadratically decrease computation time. Unfortunately, fe... |
Comparative Analysis of Control Barrier Functions and Artificial Potential Fields for Obstacle Avoidance | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636670/ | [
"Andrew Singletary",
"Karl Klingebiel",
"Joseph Bourne",
"Andrew Browning",
"Phil Tokumaru",
"Aaron Ames",
"Andrew Singletary",
"Karl Klingebiel",
"Joseph Bourne",
"Andrew Browning",
"Phil Tokumaru",
"Aaron Ames"
] | Artificial potential fields (APFs) and their variants have been a staple for collision avoidance of mobile robots and manipulators for almost 40 years. Its model-independent nature, ease of implementation, and real-time performance have played a large role in its continued success over the years. Control barrier functions (CBFs), on the other hand, are a more recent development, commonly used to g... |
DRQN-based 3D Obstacle Avoidance with a Limited Field of View | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635949/ | [
"Yu’an Chen",
"Guangda Chen",
"Lifan Pan",
"Jun Ma",
"Yu Zhang",
"Yanyong Zhang",
"Jianmin Ji",
"Yu’an Chen",
"Guangda Chen",
"Lifan Pan",
"Jun Ma",
"Yu Zhang",
"Yanyong Zhang",
"Jianmin Ji"
] | In this paper, we propose a map-based end-to-end DRL approach for three-dimensional (3D) obstacle avoidance in a partially observed environment, which is applied to achieve autonomous navigation for an indoor mobile robot using a depth camera with a narrow field of view. We first train a neural network with LSTM units in a 3D simulator of mobile robots to approximate the Q-value function in double... |
Crowd-Aware Robot Navigation for Pedestrians with Multiple Collision Avoidance Strategies via Map-based Deep Reinforcement Learning | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636579/ | [
"Shunyi Yao",
"Guangda Chen",
"Quecheng Qiu",
"Jun Ma",
"Xiaoping Chen",
"Jianmin Ji",
"Shunyi Yao",
"Guangda Chen",
"Quecheng Qiu",
"Jun Ma",
"Xiaoping Chen",
"Jianmin Ji"
] | It is challenging for a mobile robot to navigate through human crowds. Existing approaches usually assume that pedestrians follow a predefined collision avoidance strategy, like social force model (SFM) or optimal reciprocal collision avoidance (ORCA). However, their performances commonly need to be further improved for practical applications, where pedestrians follow multiple different collision ... |
Exponential stability of trajectory tracking control in the orientation space utilizing unit quaternions | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636171/ | [
"Leonidas Koutras",
"Zoe Doulgeri",
"Leonidas Koutras",
"Zoe Doulgeri"
] | Trajectory tracking in the orientation space utilizing unit quaternions yields non linear error dynamics as opposed to Cartesian position. In this work, we study trajectory tracking in the orientation space utilizing the most popular quaternion error representations and angular velocity errors. By selecting error functions carefully we show exponential convergence in a region of attraction contain... |
Control of Spherical Robots on Uneven Terrains | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636543/ | [
"Sahand Sabet",
"Mohammad Poursina",
"Parviz E. Nikravesh",
"Sahand Sabet",
"Mohammad Poursina",
"Parviz E. Nikravesh"
] | Hybrid robots incorporate the advantages of both aerial-only and terrestrial-only vehicles to achieve enhanced mobility and better energy efficiency. Among hybrid vehicles, spherical robots offer the best maneuverability. While operating on uneven surfaces is one of the main benefits of spherical robots, the current literature only covers control of these robots on flat surfaces. This work present... |
Area Defense and Surveillance on Rectangular Regions Using Control Barrier Functions | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636379/ | [
"Luis Guerrero-Bonilla",
"Magnus Egerstedt",
"Dimos V. Dimarogonas",
"Luis Guerrero-Bonilla",
"Magnus Egerstedt",
"Dimos V. Dimarogonas"
] | A formulation of the area defense and surveillance problem for one intruder and one defense and surveillance robot and its corresponding solution using control barrier functions is presented. The defense robot must follow the intruder as it moves through a rectangular region in the plane, ensuring that the position of the intruder is also within a rectangular region attached to the surveillance ro... |
Robust Feedback Motion Primitives for Exploration of Unknown Terrains | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636521/ | [
"Charles Chernik",
"Pouria Tajvar",
"Jana Tumova",
"Charles Chernik",
"Pouria Tajvar",
"Jana Tumova"
] | Unknown properties of a robot’s environment are one of the sources of uncertainty in autonomous navigation. This uncertainty has to be accounted for when modelling robot dynamics. For ground vehicles in particular, terrain structure is one of the main environmental factors that can strongly influence the dynamics. Therefore, to ensure the ability of a robot to safely and efficiently navigate new e... |
A Self-Biasing Shape Memory Alloy Gripper for Lightweight Applications | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636155/ | [
"Sean Thomas",
"Gabriel Maquignaz",
"Adrien Thabuis",
"Yves Perriard",
"Sean Thomas",
"Gabriel Maquignaz",
"Adrien Thabuis",
"Yves Perriard"
] | Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) are a type of smart material that are commonly used in compact and lightweight linear actuators. Paired with compliant motion conversion mechanisms, these alloys can be transformed into lightweight grippers ideal for applications such as drone deliveries. This work proposes to use the inherent stiffness of a compliant mechanism with an SMA coil, to design and size a self... |
A Compliant Five-Bar Legged Mechanism for Heavy-Load Legged Robots by Using Magneto-Rheological Actuators | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636256/ | [
"Guangzeng Chen",
"Jiangtao Ran",
"Chenguang Bai",
"Pengyu Jie",
"Yunjiang Lou",
"Guangzeng Chen",
"Jiangtao Ran",
"Chenguang Bai",
"Pengyu Jie",
"Yunjiang Lou"
] | In this paper, a compliant five-bar leg mechanism is proposed, designed and manufactured for heavy-load legged robots, by using two magneto-rheological actuators (MRAs) that are capable of offering a maximal torque of 78Nm. To address the rate-dependent hysteresis of the MRA, a hybrid rate-dependent hysteresis model is derived based on the idea of mappings between different hysteresis loops. With ... |
Parallel Variable Stiffness Actuators | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636249/ | [
"Chase W. Mathews",
"David J. Braun",
"Chase W. Mathews",
"David J. Braun"
] | In this paper, we introduce a new type of compliant actuator named the Parallel Variable Stiffness Actuator (PVSA) which consists of a variable stiffness spring placed in parallel with a direct-drive motor. Parallel variable stiffness actuators provide (i) high-fidelity force control and (ii) controllable energy storage, as they inherit the benefits of direct-drive motors and variable stiffness sp... |
Novel Variable Stiffness Spring Mechanism: Modulating Stiffness Independent of the Energy Stored by the Spring | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636339/ | [
"Sung Y. Kim",
"David J. Braun",
"Sung Y. Kim",
"David J. Braun"
] | Theory suggests a linear relation between stiffness and the energy stored by a linear helical spring at constant deformation. This relation implies that increasing the stiffness of a helical spring upon deformation requires more energy at larger deformations. State-of-the-art variable stiffness spring actuators, used to drive robots and human assistive and augmentation devices, are characterized b... |
An Analysis on the Modeling Accuracy of Industrial Manipulators with Inherent Joint Elasticity | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636291/ | [
"Rajesh Subburaman",
"Mariapaola D’Imperio",
"Jinoh Lee",
"Ferdinando Cannella",
"Rajesh Subburaman",
"Mariapaola D’Imperio",
"Jinoh Lee",
"Ferdinando Cannella"
] | High precision industrial applications call for equally precise functioning of industrial manipulators, which in turn requires accurate modeling of the manipulators. This paper carries out a detailed study on the modeling of industrial manipulators with elastic joints to improve their accuracy. In particular, the effect of adopting a simple harmonic drive (HD) model and ignoring a dynamic effect c... |
TrajectoTree: Trajectory Optimization Meets Tree Search for Planning Multi-contact Dexterous Manipulation | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636346/ | [
"Claire Chen",
"Preston Culbertson",
"Marion Lepert",
"Mac Schwager",
"Jeannette Bohg",
"Claire Chen",
"Preston Culbertson",
"Marion Lepert",
"Mac Schwager",
"Jeannette Bohg"
] | Dexterous manipulation tasks often require contact switching, where fingers make and break contact with the object. We propose a method that plans trajectories for dexterous manipulation tasks involving contact switching using contact-implicit trajectory optimization (CITO) augmented with a high-level discrete contact sequence planner. We first use the high-level planner to find a sequence of fing... |
Geometry-Based Two-Contact Inverse Kinematic Solution for Whole Arm Manipulation | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636664/ | [
"Pascal Gliesche",
"Christian Kowalski",
"Max Pfingsthorn",
"Andreas Hein",
"Pascal Gliesche",
"Christian Kowalski",
"Max Pfingsthorn",
"Andreas Hein"
] | Whole-arm manipulation (WAM) is often used to manipulate large and bulky objects. Contact point-based methods for generating the robot configurations for WAM mostly search for suitable contact points and configurations simultaneously. However, in order to learn good contact points, or allow an operator to select them, inverse kinematics (IK) solvers are needed which take such points along with a s... |
Efficient Task Planning for Mobile Manipulation: a Virtual Kinematic Chain Perspective | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636554/ | [
"Ziyuan Jiao",
"Zeyu Zhang",
"Weiqi Wang",
"David Han",
"Song-Chun Zhu",
"Yixin Zhu",
"Hangxin Liu",
"Ziyuan Jiao",
"Zeyu Zhang",
"Weiqi Wang",
"David Han",
"Song-Chun Zhu",
"Yixin Zhu",
"Hangxin Liu"
] | We present a Virtual Kinematic Chain (VKC) perspective, a simple yet effective method, to improve task planning efficacy for mobile manipulation. By consolidating the kinematics of the mobile base, the arm, and the object being manipulated collectively as a whole, this novel VKC perspective naturally defines abstract actions and eliminates unnecessary predicates in describing intermediate poses. A... |
Efficient Picking by Considering Simultaneous Two-Object Grasping | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636727/ | [
"Takumi Sakamoto",
"Weiwei Wan",
"Takao Nishi",
"Kensuke Harada",
"Takumi Sakamoto",
"Weiwei Wan",
"Takao Nishi",
"Kensuke Harada"
] | This paper presents a motion planning algorithm that enables robots to efficiently pick up objects by considering simultaneous multi-object grasping. At the center of the algorithm is a cost function that helps to determine one of the following three grasping policies considering distance and friction constraints – Grasping a single object; Grasping two objects simultaneously; Grasping two object ... |
Search-based Path Planning for a High Dimensional Manipulator in Cluttered Environments Using Optimization-based Primitives | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636387/ | [
"Muhammad Suhail Saleem",
"Raghav Sood",
"Sho Onodera",
"Rohit Arora",
"Hiroyuki Kanazawa",
"Maxim Likhachev",
"Muhammad Suhail Saleem",
"Raghav Sood",
"Sho Onodera",
"Rohit Arora",
"Hiroyuki Kanazawa",
"Maxim Likhachev"
] | In this work we tackle the path planning problem for a 21-dimensional snake robot-like manipulator, navigating a cluttered gas turbine for the purposes of inspection. Heuristic search based approaches are effective planning strategies for common manipulation domains. However, their performance on high dimensional systems is heavily reliant on the effectiveness of the action space and the heuristic... |
NMPC-MP: Real-time Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Safe Motion Planning in Manipulator Teleoperation | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636802/ | [
"Siqi Hu",
"Edwin Babaians",
"Mojtaba Karimi",
"Eckehard Steinbach",
"Siqi Hu",
"Edwin Babaians",
"Mojtaba Karimi",
"Eckehard Steinbach"
] | Motion control and planning for the manipulator are critical components in manipulator teleoperation. Online (real-time) motion control is challenging for active obstacle avoidance and often results in fluctuating and unsafe motion. Offline motion planning, on the other hand, generates precise and secure trajectories for complex manipulation. In this paper, a real-time nonlinear model predictive c... |
Robotic Guidance System for Visually Impaired Users Running Outdoors Using Haptic Feedback | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636567/ | [
"Zhenyu Liao",
"Jose Salazar",
"Yasuhisa Hirata",
"Zhenyu Liao",
"Jose Salazar",
"Yasuhisa Hirata"
] | For the visually impaired people, some outdoor activities like running or soccer are difficult, due to not being able to clearly see the environment. Recently, multiple researchers have contributed to help the visually impaired people run outdoors using robotic systems with different types of feedback, such as auditory feedback and haptic feedback. They discovered that using robotic systems can be... |
Variable Stiffness Folding Joints for Haptic Feedback | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636656/ | [
"Fabio Zuliani",
"Jamie Paik",
"Fabio Zuliani",
"Jamie Paik"
] | Origami robots composed of rigid parts with flexible joints have inherent compliance that enables deployment and reconfiguration for various shape adaptations. The major drawback of such mechanical compliance is its intrinsic softness and lack of controllability of this stiffness. In this work, we propose a design of variable stiffness origami joints to be integrated into large scale origami syste... |
Can A Vibrotactile Stimulation On Fingertips Make An Illusion Of Elbow Joint Movement? | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636500/ | [
"Dinmukhammed Mukashev",
"Adilzhan Adilkhanov",
"Zhanat Kappassov",
"Dinmukhammed Mukashev",
"Adilzhan Adilkhanov",
"Zhanat Kappassov"
] | Traditionally vibrotactile feedback delivered by haptic interfaces is used to provide additional support for visual interaction via prehensile object manipulation using fingers. Nevertheless, haptic stimuli can be also applied for non-prehensile interaction that involves movements of the elbow joint. In this paper, we have designed a table-top haptic device that provides vibrotactile stimulation t... |
Two-Stage Optimization of a Reconfigurable Asymmetric 6-DOF Haptic Robot for Task-Specific Workspace | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636251/ | [
"Changqi Zhang",
"Congzhe Wang",
"Qing Miao",
"Mingming Zhang",
"Changqi Zhang",
"Congzhe Wang",
"Qing Miao",
"Mingming Zhang"
] | Parallel mechanisms (PMs) are commonly used for developing haptic devices due to low inertia, high rigidity and precision. However, limited workspace impedes their application for task-oriented robotic therapy which generally requires large motion ranges. To solve this problem, first, a PM- based reconfigurable asymmetric 6-DOF haptic interface was presented, and then a two-stage optimization meth... |
Stable Haptic Teleoperation of UAVs via Small L2 Gain and Control Barrier Functions | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635952/ | [
"Dawei Zhang",
"Roberto Tron",
"Dawei Zhang",
"Roberto Tron"
] | We present a novel haptic teleoperation approach that considers not only the safety but also the stability of a teleoperation system. Specifically, we build upon previous work on haptic shared control, which generates a reference haptic feedback that helps the human operator to safely navigate the robot but without taking away their control authority. Crucially, in this approach the force rendered... |
A novel testbed for investigating the impact of teleoperator dynamics on perceived environment dynamics | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636829/ | [
"Mohit Singhala",
"Jeremy D. Brown",
"Mohit Singhala",
"Jeremy D. Brown"
] | Human-in-the-loop telerobotic systems (HiLTS) are robotic tools designed to extend and in some circumstances improve the dexterous capabilities of the human operator in virtual and remote environments. Dexterous manipulation, however, depends on how well the telerobot is incorporated into the operator’s sensorimotor control scheme. Empirical evidence suggests that haptic feedback can lead to impro... |
Continuous Robust Trajectory Tracking Control for Autonomous Ground Vehicles Considering Lateral and Longitudinal Kinematics and Dynamics via Recursive Backstepping | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9635920/ | [
"Ming Xin",
"Yue Yin",
"Kai Zhang",
"David Lackner",
"Zhongchao Ren",
"Mark Minor",
"Ming Xin",
"Yue Yin",
"Kai Zhang",
"David Lackner",
"Zhongchao Ren",
"Mark Minor"
] | Maintaining lateral and longitudinal trajectory tracking accuracy is challenging for autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs). This paper considers kinematics and dynamics of longitudinal and lateral motion to form a novel composite structure considering the cross-impacts of acceleration and steering commands on tracking errors in the lateral and longitudinal directions, respectively. The multi-tiered st... |
Sub-optimal and robust path tracking: a geometric approach | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636166/ | [
"Karin Tieber",
"Johannes Rumetshofer",
"Michael Stolz",
"Daniel Watzenig",
"Karin Tieber",
"Johannes Rumetshofer",
"Michael Stolz",
"Daniel Watzenig"
] | Path tracking controllers for non-holonomic vehicles are commonly designed with primary focus on robustness to different kinds of disturbances, vehicle dynamics and other effects. Subsequently, the path tracking behavior is improved by parameter optimization or controller extensions. The possible improvement, however, is already limited by the control design itself. To overcome this drawback, this... |
Whole-Body MPC and Online Gait Sequence Generation for Wheeled-Legged Robots | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636371/ | [
"Marko Bjelonic",
"Ruben Grandia",
"Oliver Harley",
"Cla Galliard",
"Samuel Zimmermann",
"Marco Hutter",
"Marko Bjelonic",
"Ruben Grandia",
"Oliver Harley",
"Cla Galliard",
"Samuel Zimmermann",
"Marco Hutter"
] | Our paper proposes a model predictive controller as a single-task formulation that simultaneously optimizes wheel and torso motions. This online joint velocity and ground reaction force optimization integrates a kinodynamic model of a wheeled quadrupedal robot. It defines the single rigid body dynamics along with the robot’s kinematics while treating the wheels as moving ground contacts. With this... |
Design and Analysis of a Bi-directional Transformable Wheel Robot Trimode | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9636421/ | [
"Qiwei Xu",
"Hao Xu",
"Kun Xiong",
"Qinqin Zhou",
"Weizhong Guo",
"Qiwei Xu",
"Hao Xu",
"Kun Xiong",
"Qinqin Zhou",
"Weizhong Guo"
] | This article presents a novel transformable wheeled robot with three motion modes. Based on the four-bar mechanism design, the transformable wheel can transform into CW (clockwise) legged wheel mode and CCW (counterclock-wise) legged wheel mode from the circular wheel. Both legged wheel modes achieve good obstacle-climbing performance when the robot overcomes obstacles such as steps in the forward... |
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